Are the Cylons More Human Than Human?

Today in the Podcast we came across an interesting topic. What are the limits in the war? Though I think Chuck will vehemently disagree with me on this, I am pro “kick cylon tail” by whatever means available. I don’t think mass attempted genocide with the follow-up of robbing reproductive organs of human women and the hounding of the fleet whenever they encounter them speaks of much fair play that the cylons have afforded humanity.

The notion that the cylons as an aggressive and occupying force “respect” human temples or any other human emotional need is almost ludicrous in its own right. They, as a whole, completely annihilated 12 colonies’ worth of temples, families, pets, best friends and children and have demonstrated no qualms about it.

So the fact that in an occupation where the cylons are trying to slowly destroy the human spirit by taking away their right to live free, but this time doing it slowly, with a great deal less bloodshed in a prison camp, only speaks to a change in tactics, not a underling morality or respect for the human race.

Judging from the webisodes it looks likeTigh and the Chief will be fighting a war against an intractable enemy on New Caprica, when their own people might largely be against them. Short on supplies, short on morale and short on weapons is not the time to worry about if you are conforming to “The Rules of War.” The cylons certainly haven’t.

When talking about where the line is in a war of this nature earlier today in the podcast, Audra quite eloquently brought up the point that you must think about kind of person it would make you if you pushed the line too far. Is humanity worth saving if humans are no better than the cylons? Tigh would say that in a war for survival, only the victor has the luxury of contemplating those decisions. The loser of that conflict of course, being dead but perhaps righteous. While that may be a bit overboard, in practice he is probably correct, the victor writes the history.

This being the case, I can’t imagine letting any strategic opportunity go by without striking, and striking hard. It is no secret, as I have made the point in both Podcasts now that Tigh is uniquely suited to this form of all or nothing warfare. I think he is more than capable when it comes to battle strategy and an able commander. However whatever means available would also include, as Chuck pointed out, accepting help from anyone willing to engage the toasters to help the cause – i.e. human/cylon resistance fighters like Caprica Six which I doubt Tigh could bring his pride to do.

In the end I suppose none of us not put in the situation where we lost almost everything and stand to lose the rest can really judge how we would react to this conflict. Some people are simply not wired to fight, some are wired not to stop fighting (even when it might be a good idea), and some people just might do the same thing the rest of us do, trudge through the best way we know how with what we got.